Vandals cause power outages for Harvey-area residents - Jan. 28, 2014

Barb Rayner
Harvey
About 2,000 NB Power customers were without power for several hours Saturday after the substation in Harvey was vandalised.
Megan Gerrish, communications officer with NB Power, said the outages affected people in the village of Harvey and in the surrounding area.
She said thieves broke into the substation some time Friday night and it appears they were searching for copper. The incident is currently under investigation by the RCMP.
Gerrish explained that copper is the grounding in the substation and when it is damaged, electricity current burns up other equipment. In this case, a series of control panels were destroyed and these had to be replaced.
The bulk of those affected were in the village of Harvey, she said, but the outage did affect some people in the surrounding rural areas as well.
Gerrish said NB Power received the first call about outages at 6 a.m. Saturday and power had been restored to everyone by 3 p.m.
She said there was also some other maintenance work carried out Saturday in the St. Stephen area which was not connected to the vandalism incident. This affected 89 customers for a few hours but Gerrish said power was restored fairly quickly.
The St. Stephen outage affected a large part of King Street, including Charlotte Mall, Superstore, Kent and Border Area Community Arena, where the loss of power forced cancellation of a high-school hockey game.
On Tuesday, the West District RCMP and Capital Region Crime Stoppers issued a press release seeking information from the public about the theft, stating it took place sometime between 2:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. Saturday.
Capital Region Crime Stoppers will pay up to $2,000 for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons responsible. Anyone with information is asked to contact the RCMP at 357-4300 or 1-888-506-RCMP (7267). To remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers either online at crimenb.ca or by calling 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).